"You must use the bill! Or sue, I will!"
Posted on 04/07/2005 2:46:06 PM PDT by TitansAFC
A man trying to pay a fee using $2 bills was arrested, handcuffed and taken to jail after clerks at a Best Buy store questioned the currency's legitimacy and called police.
According to an account in the Baltimore Sun, 57-year-old Mike Bolesta was shocked to find himself taken to the Baltimore County lockup in Cockeysville, Md., where he was handcuffed to a pole for three hours while the U.S. Secret Service was called to weigh in on the case.
Bolesta told the Sun: "I am 6 feet 5 inches tall, and I felt like 8 inches high. To be handcuffed, to have all those people looking on, to be cuffed to a pole – and to know you haven't done anything wrong. And me, with a brother, Joe, who spent 33 years on the city police force. It was humiliating."
After Best Buy personnel reportedly told Bolesta he would not be charged for the installation of a stereo in his son's car, he received a call from the store saying it was in fact charging him the fee. As a means of protest, Bolesta decided to pay the $114 bill using 57 crisp, new $2 bills.
As the owner of Capital City Student Tours, the Baltimore resident has a hearty supply of the uncommon currency. He often gives the bills to students who take his tours for meal money.
"The kids don't see that many $2 bills, so they think this is the greatest thing in the world," Bolesta says. "They don't want to spend 'em. They want to save 'em. I've been doing this since I started the company. So I'm thinking, 'I'll stage my little comic protest. I'll pay the $114 with $2 bills.'"
Bolesta explained what happened when he presented the bills to the cashier at Best Buy Feb. 20.
"She looked at the $2 bills and told me, 'I don't have to take these if I don't want to.' I said, 'If you don't, I'm leaving. I've tried to pay my bill twice. You don't want these bills, you can sue me.' So she took the money – like she's doing me a favor."
Belesta says the cashier marked each bill with a pen. Other store employees began to gather, a few of them asking, "Are these real?"
"Of course they are," Bolesta said. "They're legal tender."
According to the Sun report, the police arrest report noted one employee noticed some smearing of ink on the bills. That's when the cops were called. One officer reportedly noticed the bills ran in sequential order.
Said Bolesta: "I told them, 'I'm a tour operator. I've got thousands of these bills. I get them from my bank. You got a problem, call the bank.' I'm sitting there in a chair. The store's full of people watching this. All of a sudden, he's standing me up and handcuffing me behind my back, telling me, 'We have to do this until we get it straightened out.'
"Meanwhile, everybody's looking at me. I've lived here 18 years. I'm hoping my kids don't walk in and see this. And I'm saying, 'I can't believe you're doing this. I'm paying with legal American money.'"
Bolesta was taken to the lockup, where he sat handcuffed to a pole and in leg irons while the Secret Service was called.
"At this point," he says, "I'm a mass murderer."
Secret Service agent Leigh Turner eventually arrived and declared the bills legitimate, adding, according to the police report, "Sometimes ink on money can smear."
Commenting on the incident, Baltimore County police spokesman Bill Toohey told the Sun: "It's a sign that we're all a little nervous in the post-9/11 world."
What a coincidence! I know a lot of non-teachers who should be teaching.
Sounds like a match made in Heaven; they should get together....
"so if the cop is ignorant in matters of currency"
Well, they always tell us plain citizens that "ignorance of the law is no excuse." I am certain that the same test, more stringently applied, will be used on a police officer.
When you arrest someone, you are depriving them of their freedom, which should not be done without a very good cause. To make matters worse, the man was publically humiliated by the actions of the store personnel and more importantly the police. He was handcuffed to a pole? In the open view of the public? You can't place a dollar amount on the reputation damages inflicted on him.
I hope he gets a good attorney and attempts to get this heard in a Federal Court. I don't go in for the ACLU's nonsense and don't want to sound like them, but in this case, this man's civil rights were violated. There just isn't any excuse for this type of behavior on the part of law enforcement. The store is especially going to be toast.
The only thing I can see that might act as a mitigating factor regarding the store & police action is that this man intentionally used 2 dollar bills to force the clerk to count out a large sum of money, and it was obvious he was angry at the store for a charge he didn't believe he owed. It could be argued that he was acting in a hostile manner and provoked an incident by his actions. I wouldn't agree with this position, but I can see how a jury might.
Silly. It's only no excuse for civilians. Cops are special.
Yes, they use them in the bill changer where I work.
Isn't turnabout funny? Of course, these rules only apply to us lowly citizens. I hope to find out what happens when this whole thing pans out.
Compare this case to the Sandy Berger case to see how gratuitous both parties are to each other. This poor guy is put in handcuffs for doing nothing. Berger gets not even a slap on the wrist for endangering our national security. Maybe these abuses have aways happened, it's just that now we find out about them because of the net.
perhaps it's time to shake things up a little bit.
Sounds like we should be working something out.
At my sons middle school, he would pay for snacks from the cafeteria with dollar bills, and they would give him those Sascajawea dollars as quarters back. These were adult female cafeteria employees of the school district.
If that is not a kick in the head.
\
I called the local paper and they wrote a humorous article about it.
I agree with your statements, but remember that no matter what we believe, this must still be decided by a jury. I would lean to a heavy verdict in his favor, but often, the police do get a break from juries. Time will tell.
I don't know either. I do know the guy has probably had the bill since at least the sixties and possibly earlier. In the 80's when I lived in Mississippi, $500 bills were still in circulation. The lady we dealt with at the bank offered to hold one for us. I never took her up on the offer.
I think at one time the larger bills did circulate. With the rise of money laundrying and the drug problem, the fed has taken everything but $100s out of public circulation.
Wrongful arrest.
Could be some money coming Mike Bolesta's way.
Sounds to me like Best Buy is going to be writing this guy a check for far more than $114 very soon.
2 dollar bills are works of art... Sacajaweas are Chuck E Cheese tokens.
Who in this country has not seen or heard of a $2 bill? Bleh - they are so wierd.
"You must use the bill! Or sue, I will!"
Sheesh!
Teachers?
Having been to several Best Buy stores in Maryland and knowing the caliber of dumbass clerks usually infesting the place - this surprises me very little.
They are usually the "Look at me, world!!!" type of idiot you can almost always hear long before you see them.
You probably get the picture....
I'd ALMOST say I'm surprised that the cops fall into the same idiot gaggle....but then again - we ARE talking about Maryland here.
Yeah... I remember reading the alert from the dept of homeland security... "Be on the lookout for terrorists weilding two dollar bills... Be careful... You can identify the bills by this discription: That guy Jefferson on them looks particularly dangerous. He's known for writing some of the most dangerous documents ever seen by any government! And on the back of the bills, you'll see a bunch of troublemakers planning and colluding to overthrow their lawful government!"
Can't do racial profiling, because it's wrong... It's nice to know that at least they can do currency profiling... You know, most cash register drawers don't have enough cubbyholes, so thank goodness they got this anarchist off the streets!
I hope this guy sues EVERYBODY involved! And I hate it when people do that!
Mark
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